1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reducing standby time for printers. More specifically, the invention concerns a method and system and program storage device for reducing standby time for printing in a set of networked printers.
2. Description of the Related Art
As known to those skilled in the art, a network is a communication structure in which two or more communication apparatuses are interconnected for the purpose of data communication and serves to transmit data between interconnected apparatuses. In this structure, transmitting and switching apparatuses as well as computers are interconnected by a communication line. Networks include the Internet, Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs). The Internet is a network in which networks are interconnected all over the world. LAN is a network in which communication apparatuses are interconnected in a local area. A WAN is a network in which communication apparatuses are interconnected in a wide area.
As computer networking technology developed and services using the technology increased, the operating systems for computers progressed to Network Operating System (NOS) and Distributed Operating System (DOS).
A printer is an apparatus that receives print data from data transmitting apparatuses such as personal computers and prints the print data in the form of a document. Printers include network printers and computer-connected printers. The former has a network card for allowing network communication to be possible.
When two or more network printers and at least one host computer are connected to a network, the user of the host computer may select one of the network printers and utilizes the selected network printer for a print operation. When a print operation is required to be performed for the host computer, print data are transmitted from the host computer to the selected network printer. The selected network printer performs the print operation using the print data that are transmitted from the host computer.
When there are a large amount of print operations in the selected network printer that received the print data, the selected network printer detects the network printer of the same type among the other network printers and relays the print data received from the host computer. The detected network printer performs the print operation using the print data that are transmitted from the host computer.
Exemplars of the art are Gase et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,177 entitled PRINTER/CLIENT NETWORK WITH CENTRALLY UPDATED PRINTER DRIVERS AND PRINTER STATUS MONITORING; Lobiondo U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,194 entitled DISTRIBUTED PRINTING; Nardozzi U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,637 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING PRINT JOBS AMONG A NETWORK OF IMAGE PROCESSORS AND PRINT ENGINES; Sasaki U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,118 entitled PRINTING SYSTEM WHEREIN ONE OF PRINTER DRIVERS THROUGH WHICH PRINT DATA IS SENT FROM A DATA PROCESSOR TO A PRINTER IS SELECTED BASED ON INTERPRETERS AVAILABLE ON THE PRINTER; and Akabori et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,582 entitled DATA PRINTING SYSTEM AND METHOD, AND A CONTROLLER AND PRINTER THEREFOR.
The art has failed, however, to combine the instantaneous backlog of work distributed among network computers and to prioritize the assignment of forthcoming printing jobs on the basis of net distribution. Consequently, since a print operation must be performed in a network printer selected by a host computer in which the print operation is required to be performed even though one or more network printers are connected to a network, a standby period of time is lengthy when a large amount of print operations are in the selected network printer. Additionally, when a print operation is performed in such a way that a selected network printer relays print data to another network printer and the latter network printer performs the print operation using the print data, the efficiency and applicability of print operation suffers because only a network printer of the same type can be selected for this case.